Forgotten Providence is an interesting and useful new site, which is serving to document the more tangible outcomes of the foreclosure crisis: empty and burnt-out structures littered throughout the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

A bittersweet appreciation of the aesthetic of post-industry defines much of Providence’s arts and culture, so I really appreciate this disclaimer of sorts, from the Projo article about the site:

Holland, the co-creator of Forgotten Providence, said the Web site “isn’t about ‘aestheticizing’ a national crisis” but rather it’s about “making it a community activist platform.”

The site’s proprietors are providing a great service, and the abundance of abandoned triple-deckers is indeed tragic — but it is but an epiphenomenon of a greater tragedy: the foreclosures and evictions themselves.

Urban renewal and redevelopment is so frequently concerned predominantly with the built environment, only secondarily considering what happens inside of those buildings: Pretty edifices sometimes correlate to real improvements in peoples’ lives, and sometimes don’t — even exacerbating hardship by putting upward pressure on rent and taxes.

While there’s a fair amount of money available to facilitate the purchase and rehab of abandoned properties — Forgotten Providence is a good resource for info about these programs — there’s still woefully little being done in RI to prevent foreclosures to begin with. For years, policymakers ignored warnings about pervasive predatory lending and the pending crash of the housing market — an anti-predatory lending bill passed very late in the game, and calls to rein in speculation fell on deaf ears. And so we have one of the worst foreclosure crises in the nation.

A series of bills has been introduced to block foreclosures, encourage or require renegotiation of mortgages, and make the foreclosure process easier on innocent tenants who are frequently doubly victimized — by landlords who don’t bother to inform them about prospective foreclosures, often following from predatory loans. The Projo probably won’t support any of these proposals as such, and the editorial board is unlikely to point fingers at lenders, but the E-board makes the important point that even those who resent “foolish” borrowers should support stabilization of the housing market. Let’s help turn things around, and use this moment to get safeguards in place so it won’t be as bad during the next boom and bust.

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